There are a number of contextually-appropriate ways to craft this post. One would be to forgo words entirely, and represent Chris Wilcox’s entire season with a series of videos. That would involve one part of this: For every eight parts of this: Note the headline on that second clip. Someone was so amused/enraged by Wilcox’s [...]

Here’s a sweeping general statement involving super specific statistics that may or may not mean anything: In the 1423 minutes Rajon Rondo played this season, the Boston Celtics were outscored by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. When he sat (including all contests after he tore his ACL), Boston was better than their opponents by 1.8 [...]

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

Need Incentive To Stay Up For Tonight’s Game? How About Bill Walton Providing Color Commentary

Posted by Brian Robb on Jan 27, 2011 155643 comments2011-01-27+18%3A22%3A49Brian+Robb

A good thing about this year’s season for us local Celtics fans, is that the NBA has begun allowing the team’s local broadcasts to cover the game, even when any game is on a national cable network like TNT or ESPN. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of select commentary duos and trios on both of those networks, but for my money, I’ll take Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn any day of the week over most of the rest.

So whether you tune into tonight’s contest on TNT or CSN (probably TNT for pregame, halftime, and postgame for the hilarous Inside The NBA crew), if you choose to watch CSN you’re in for a treat. As Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe points out, Bill Walton will be subbing for Tommy Heinsohn both tonight in Portland and tomorrow night in Phoenix on the team’s west coast swing.

With Tom Heinsohn staying behind in Boston, Bill Walton, legend on the floor and in the booth, will join Mike Gorman as Comcast SportsNet’s color commentator for the upcoming back-to-back starting tonight in Portland. Walton’s handle on hyperbole made him one of the most interesting personalities around the league, but after 19 years of broadcasting, he left ESPN in 2009 to address back pains that were so intense that, he said, he’d wake up some days feeling “useless.” After seeing Dr. Steven Garfin at the University of California — San Diego, Walton went through a grueling, but life-changing surgery. He was at the Finals last summer and recently, he started calling games again part time for the Sacramento Kings. Tonight, he’ll get to see two of his former teams in action.

Now this isn’t the best move CSN could have made. That came last year, when Bill Raftery joined Mike Gorman for one game in Milwaukee that was true nirvana to listen to for two and a half hours for hoops fans. A Walton sub-in, for a couple nights anyway, is not a bad alternative though and probably is just the perfect dose of Walton to provide us east coast night owls with an some added incentive to stay up late these next couple nights. Some old poetic rhetoric from Walton after the jump